BasebALZ – 2018 Texas Recap

2018 was a busy year for baseball reminiscence in Texas.  The Rogers Hornsby Chapter of SABR provided baseball-themed programs in Austin, Kerrville, and San Antonio.  We also worked with SABR members nationally to help expand and support this rewarding effort.

Our baseball reminiscence program, nicknamed “BasebALZ”, uses baseball history, anecdotes, and trivia to promote pleasant memories and discussion of the past for participants (and their family members) dealing with dementia.  Reminiscence therapy is an effective technique to help improve the well-being of those dealing with dementia, along with their family and caregivers.

Here are a few 2018 highlights:

In AUSTIN we began our fourth year of operation and delivered 18 BasebALZ sessions, organized into three “seasons” consisting of six biweekly sessions apiece.  The program is sponsored by Alzheimer’s Texas here in the capital city and is supported by funding from the DKR Research Fund.  We currently meet at Westminster Senior Living.

Attendance has been consistently strong in Austin with varied programs delivered by a dedicated group of volunteers.  Average attendance is around 14-18 participants, caregivers and volunteers; the high session attendance for the year was twenty.  In addition to talking about baseball, we include other reminiscence topics such as music, “this day in history”, memorabilia, “stump the experts”, baseball bingo – just to name a few.

A periodic “Do the Twist” contest has become a favorite activity.

Our last Austin session on November 19 was “standing room only”.

Our participants and caregivers are regular contributors to the agenda.  John (l) keeps order and leads the singing.  Bobby and Renee (r) present a regular item called “Stump the Experts”.  They provide a list of clues about the identity of a major league ballplayer and see if they can stump the SABR volunteers.  They “batted” about .500 in 2018, often stumping the “experts”.

We enjoy sharing memorabilia and sometimes get some “swag” from other non-profits.  Here the group sports t-shirts provided by the Eddie Gaedel Society (yes, there is one) in honor of one of owner Bill Veeck’s most notorious promotions.

We usually wrap up the spring/summer sessions with a night out at Dell Diamond in Round Rock.  We enjoyed a luxury suite courtesy of Alzheimer’s Texas and United Heritage Credit Union.

 

We continued to offer a BasebALZ program monthly at the Veterans Administration Hospital in KERRVILLE.  The administrators and staff have been very supportive of the reminiscence efforts.  Our volunteers have touched twenty individual veterans at the hospital, with average attendance of veterans, staff, and volunteers around fifteen per session.

As the participants at the VA are generally institutionalized with serious physical disabilities, the BasebALZ program not only helps them to “open up” and share memories of the past, but also serves as a change of pace to relieve potential isolation or loneliness.

The vets have some great stories.  A recent participant recalled his experiences at Utah Beach on D-Day.

The staff at Kerrville VA is so enthusiastic about BasebALZ that they’ve asked for our help to enable them to offer the program themselves more frequently.  We’re working with them on this now.

 

SAN ANTONIO – on November 15 we conducted our first BasebALZ session at the Alzheimer’s Association – San Antonio and South Texas offices.  We had a nice “opening day” turnout of 14 participants, caregivers, staff and volunteers.

We were very encouraged by the staff support and level of interaction among the participants and caregivers.  Lunch was provided by Wrigleyville Grill and it was ballpark food at its best.  We are looking forward to scheduling an ongoing program in the Alamo City in 2019.

 

NATIONALLY – Outside of the Lone Star State, SABR members are currently leading baseball reminiscence programs in Connecticut, New York, and Los Angeles.  We have also had dialog with SABR chapter leaders in both the North New Jersey and South New Jersey chapters, as well as San Diego and San Francisco.  We are available to assist, as needed, to further the adoption of this meaningful and rewarding program.

More information on BasebALZ is available on our chapter web site at:  http://www.sabrhornsby.org/about-basebalz/

Ben Reiter, author of Astroball, joins the Hornsby hot stove

Senior sportswriter Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated joined 18 chapter members and guests last week to recount how he became fascinated by the worst team in baseball in 2014 and famously predicted that that team – the Houston Astros – would go on to win the 2017 World Series.

Author of “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” Reiter shared with the group how he had been trying for years to embed with a major league front office only to be denied time and time again. But after three consecutive 100-plus loss seasons, the Astros appeared to be in need of positive coverage, and Reiter saw an opportunity. Making no promises and accepting no conditions from the Astros, Reiter was invited to be in the room when the Astros made their No. 1 draft selection in 2014. This unprecedented access to the Astros front office and staff led to the June 30, 2014, cover story with rookie outfield George Springer sporting the throw-back Astros uniforms.

Of course, three-and-a-half years later, the Astros did become the 2017 World Series Champs. His book, “Astroball,” recounts how the Astros built on the advanced analytics pioneered by the Oakland Athletics and incorporated insights from scouts to make smarter decisions about draft picks and player projections.

Reiter read from the preface of his book and described how his article – detailing the Astros’ plan to go from worst to first – captured his editor’s imagination and unexpectedly landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He described how his editor called him and asked, how soon do you think the Astros are expecting to win again? 2020? 2019? Reiter said he thought a moment and quickly projected the few years it might take the young core of Altuve, Correa and Springer to mature, and settled on 2017. And, just like that, Reiter’s article that examined just what the Astros were up to led to a cover story with the bold prediction.

He also shared how nervous he was in 2015 when the Astros nearly made a run in beating his prediction by two years, until the Kansas City Royals made a late-inning comeback in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on their way to their first World Series title in years.

Reiter also shared how he isn’t surprised that several important members of the Astros front office are leaving and joining other ballclubs – it’s the price of success, he said. He also said he believes the Astros should remain competitive in coming years, especially with strong talent in the farm system. However, he also noted that Astros’ success in recent years means that they don’t have high draft picks any more, so the front office may need to account for that with different strategies.

Many thanks to Reiter for joining us for our monthly meeting. The following day, he traveled to San Marcos and visited journalism classes at Texas State University. He also participated in a Common Experience event to tie to the theme of innovation. A link to the video recording of that event can be found by clicking here: https://www.facebook.com/sjmctxst/videos/350074849082212/

The next monthly meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, at Romano’s Macaroni Grill Italian Restaurant (9828 Great Hills Trail at the Arboretum in northwest Austin). A request for RSVPs will be sent out in early December.

Bosox bounce back, take commanding World Series lead at watch party

A dozen chapter members and guests watched as the Los Angeles Dodgers took a 4-0 lead to try to even the World Series, only to see the Boston Red Sox bats erupt to give them a commanding three-games-to-one lead in the Fall Classic.

We gathered at the home of Jim Baker in Cedar Park on Saturday for Game 4, enjoying brisket and pulled pork sandwiches, homemade desserts, imported chocolate and more.

In addition, Jim Baker awarded Predictatron certificates to Jan Larson and Raeanne Martinez (pictured above), recognizing them as co-champions in this season’s prognostication contest. As a result, Larson and Martinez will have a division in their names, hyphenated, in next year’s Predicatron. In addition to the Larson-Martinez Division, the other division will be name after Dan Walsh, winner of his division.

Jim Baker also had a quiz that focused on the first time the Dodgers (Robins) matched up with the Red Sox in the World Series in 1916. Tom Thayer took top honors.

During the game, we also remarked about the resemblance between Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly and our very own, Ryan Pollack. Come to think of it, Ryan was unable to join us last night. Perhaps he had a prior engagement… in Los Angeles!

Many thanks to Jim Baker for hosting this annual watch party, and homemade desserts from Linda and Monte Cely (Mississippi mud cake) and Mike and Carolyn Wagner (ginger carrot cake and European chocolates). This was the seventh time in the last eight years that Jim has hosted the World Series watch party. This was also the 143rd consecutive month in which the chapter has had a monthly meeting.

For the November meeting, we’re excited to announce that Sports Illustrated writer Ben Reiter will be visiting with us at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, at Red Robin in Sunset Valley. Please save the date and plan to join us as Mr. Reiter will discuss his book, “Astroball: The New Way to Win It All,” and his prediction – in 2014 – that the Astros would be World Series champs just three years later. Please RSVP to Gilbert Martinez (gmartinez46 <at> mac.com).

World Series Watch Party

Hornsby chapter member, Jim Baker, will be hosting his annual World Series watch party on Saturday, October 27. Game time for Game Four between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers is 7:09 p.m. Jim will be providing food. Bring along something to drink if you have specific beverage requirements. Please RSVP to Jim at jimbaker1066@yahoo.com if you plan to attend and for directions, if required, to Jim’s house in Cedar Park, TX.

BasebALZ Season Ten Opening Day

Seventeen participants, caregivers, and volunteers were on hand at Westminster Senior Living in Austin for “opening day” of BasebALZ Season 10.  This marks three-and-one-half years that the Hornsby SABR Chapter (Central/South Texas), in conjunction with Alzheimer’s Texas, has been delivering our popular baseball reminiscence program.

Emcee Mike (l) opened the session with a discussion of what everyone did “on summer vacation” … or at least in the six weeks since we’d last met.  The group was well-traveled, including visits to Yosemite, Mt. Rushmore, Las Vegas, Houston and Arlington, TX.   Our leader Jim (m) was activated from the DL and back with us; he and Bob (r) look on.

We had presentations on “Today in History”, “Mayhem at the Ballpark”, and “Who’s on First?”.  The group got a lot of collective laughs from Abbott and Costello’s classic baseball comedy routine.

In his regular segment, Bobby delivered his pitch to “Stump the Experts”.   After stumping the group for most of Season Nine, he eased up on the SABR “experts” this time around.  We were able to guess that the answer was Hall of Fame Yankees catcher Bill Dickey.

The fun will continue in two weeks on Monday September 24, and every two weeks thereafter through November.

Our program at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Kerrville, Texas will also resume on Friday September 14.  Volunteers Bob and Dan, along with their wives, are delivering the monthly BasebALZ program there.

More information about the BasebALZ reminiscence program is available here.

Remembering chapter founder Bill Gilbert at monthly meeting

Sixteen chapter members and guests, gathering for the first time since the passing of chapter founder Bill Gilbert, paid tribute to him on Saturday and remembered his contributions to our community.

We had an empty chair, a World Series edition Astros cap and some fresh garden flowers at the head of the table in Bill’s remembrance. We owe so much to him, not least of which his hand in creating our vibrant baseball community. May he rest in peace.

Jan Larson recounted how Bill contacted SABR members in the Austin area for regular lunch meetings, starting in 2003. Three years later, the group officially became a SABR chapter. Later, Bill worked hard to create the chapter’s annual winter meeting, starting in 2007 and has become a recurring signature event for the chapter every January since.

As we sometimes do at our monthly meetings, we had a trivia quiz; this one supplied by Jim Baker. The theme of the quiz was teenagers who have played in the big leagues, and it was won by Tom Thayer, earning him the prize of the movie poster from the baseball movie, “Bang the drum slowly.”

In addition, Dan Walsh brought his collection of baseball stadium postcards to share with the group. It included major and minor league team stadiums, and even a few from Japanese ball clubs.

The next chapter meeting will be the World Series Watch Party at Jim Baker’s house on Saturday, Oct. 27. World Series Game 4 is scheduled for that evening. More details to follow next month.

BBQ accompanies dog-days-of-summer baseball chat

A dozen chapter members and guests endured the dog days of summer with large slabs of baseball talk and sides of post-season prognostications on Saturday.

The group gathered at County Line on the Lake for delicious barbecue, meeting for the 141st consecutive month. A wide range of professional team logos were represented at the meeting, including the Astros, Dodgers, Indians, Rockies and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Ryan, who attended the Sabermetrics, Scouting and the Science of Baseball conference in Boston earlier this month, sported a shirt from the conference – a periodic table of baseball statistical abbreviations. While he’s bummed at the tough season his Orioles are having, he’s hoping his team will hold on to secure the first pick in next year’s draft. Meanwhile I sported an Ichiro Suzuki shirt that featured a chart showing his 1,000th, 2,000th, 3,000th, and 4,000th hits. Jan grabbed one of his many caps and sported one of the Washington Nationals, a team rapidly fading from contention.

Speaking of contention, some in the group see the Boston Red Sox as the strongest team in the American League while the National League is a complete toss-up. One attendee said he hoped the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners slip past the Houston Astros for playoff qualification, though there were others who disagreed with this outcome!

The group also welcomed first-time Tom to the group. He’s an Indians fan, just like another Tom in the group, so we all agreed that this will help us remember his name. Jeremy traveled the furthest to join us for lunch, having driven from San Antonio and planning on taking in a Round Rock Express game that evening.

Ira shared how much he enjoyed touring Wrigley Field during a trip to Chicago earlier this month. He said he was surprised at how close second base looked from the center field bleachers.

Next meeting will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at Serranos (5030 W. U.S. 290 service road) in Southwest Austin. A request for RSVPs will be forthcoming.